Death penalty: Andrew DeYoung, who murdered his three members of his family, is set to die tonight at 7pm

The video taped execution of a man who murdered his family was postponed until today as prison officials worked on the 'logistics' of the filming.

Killer Andrew Grant DeYoung was meant to die in Georgia yesterday, but his execution was delayed as the state had never dealt with recording an execution before.

His execution had already been postponed 24
hours while appeals were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The unusual request was made by DeYoung's lawyers to see whether a new drug being used causes unnecessary suffering.

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld a request by another death row inmate to videotape DeYoung's death as part of a challenge to the state's execution procedure.

Experts say it will be the first known recording of an execution since 1992. In that case, California's method of execution using lethal gas was being challenged.

DeYoung was sentenced to death for the murders of his parents and teenage sister in suburban Atlanta in 1993.

He stabbed his family to death in the hope of receiving an inheritance he could use to fund a new business venture.

The decision to record the execution came after lawyers for Gregory Walker, another death row inmate, claimed one of the drugs used in the lethal injection, pentobarbital, may cause unnecessary suffering.

DeYoung's own lawyers, seeking a stay of execution, had also argued using the drug would cause him unnecessary suffering, based partly on accounts the execution of Roy Blankenship on June 23.

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An Associated Press reporter witnessed Blankenship jerking his head several times during that procedure, looking at the injection sites in his arms and muttering after the pentobarbital was injected into his veins.

It was the first time the drug was used in Georgia. Before that, sodium thiopental was used as the first drug in a series of three during executions but the maker stopped producing it, causing a nationwide shortage.

Pentobarbital has now been used this year to put at least 18 inmates to death in eight states.

Death penalty critics have said Blankenship's unusual movements were proof that Georgia shouldn't have used pentobarbital to sedate him before injecting pancuronium bromide to paralyze him and then potassium chloride to stop his heart.

Death bed: DeYoung's sentence will be carried out in an execution chamber like this one. The killer's death will be recorded to see whether he suffers

The order to record DeYoung's execution was signed by Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane on Monday.

It read: 'The petitioner seeks such access in order to preserve potential evidence regarding whether the respondent and the Department of Corrections are taking appropriate steps to prevent needless suffering through the course of execution.'

Attorney General Sam Olens and other officials who were on hand to monitor the execution did not say why it had been pushed back a day.

When asked if the delay had to do with the video tape recording, Olens said 'it's broader than that' and said the state had never before dealt with recording an execution.

The order added that the videotaping would proceed only if DeYoung was not opposed to it.

DeYoung agreed to the recording, but his lawyers spent Tuesday in federal court arguing that his execution should be delayed until more is known about the drug being used.

Brian Kammer, a lawyer involved in the cases of DeYoung and Blankenship, as well as Walker, told ABC News: 'Pentobarbital is a wholly untested drug that is not used to administer anaesthesia to healthy human subjects, so it basically amounts to Russian roulette.'

Mr Kammer added that the drug is not adjusted for weight or metabolism, and he pointed out that it is administered by untrained prison staff.

The state attorney general's office has said adequate safeguards are in place to prevent needless suffering, including a consciousness check before the second and third drugs are administered.

The consciousness check was used for the first time in Blankenship's execution.

'Pentobarbital is a wholly untested drug
that is not used to administer anesthesia to healthy human subjects, so
it basically amounts to Russian roulette.'

Brian Kammer, lawyer to death row inmates

In addition, prosecutors argued the courts have held that a certain amount of pain is acceptable during an execution.

DeYoung was convicted of stabbing to death his mother, father and 14-year-old sister, Sarah.

DeYoung, then a student at Kennesaw State University, killed his family as part of a plot to gain control of his parents' money so he could start a business.

Authorities said DeYoung cut the telephone wires of his family's home in the middle of the night.

He then stabbed his mother repeatedly while she was sleeping upstairs, then also stabbed to death his father and sister.

A brother sleeping downstairs escaped after hearing the commotion and ran to a neighbor's house for help.

Lundbeck, pentobarbital's Danish manufacturer, has said publicly that the drug should not be used in executions.